The Beast of Renald (The Northern Knights) Read Online Free Page A

battling inside her. Her eyes shot quickly to the dark leader.  His keen blue eyes watched her with something intense storming in them and she turned sharply back to the king. He stepped near her.  Aye, she was indeed going to be sick.   
    The king’s warm breath washed over her face as he said, ‘Henceforth by royal decree, Lady Caroline, your lands and all within are now my lieutenant’s. Shall I find out you aided your treasonous husband,’ he waved the soldier near whom carried her husband's head, ‘you shall meet the same fate.’ 
    Like a pendulum swing William’s hand arced through the air and the soldier dropped her husband's head at her feet.
    She did not want to but her eyes followed and her mouth dropped open. Her husband’s head rolled and stopped against her bare feet. The long sandy-colored hair he’d once glorified now lay stiffened by the dirt and blood that ran down into his thick beard. His glazed over and lifeless eyes stared wide open at her.
    The last thing Caroline remembered was the room spinning and the sound of someone screaming. She soon heard no more as darkness came up to claim her and she was glad for the screaming had stopped.
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    Water splashed her face and Caroline shot up with a startled shout. 
    ‘‘Tis alright, my lady. ‘Tis just me, Mildred. You are safe now.’
    Caroline cleared the water away from her eyes to see a grinning Norman soldier holding an empty scrub bucket.  She glared at him as he whistled and walked away.  Orienting herself, she saw that they were now outside and in the back of a wooden cart.
    From the bank to the tower all was a ball of fire.
    The tower was engulfed fully in flames and as she stared at it, it gave an earsplitting howl as though in pain and fell in on itself to the ground in a plume of spraying sparks.
    There was nothing left to their home. The last of it now a pile of rubble alongside the rest of the sacked and burning village.
    The air held a sweet sickly scent outside of the burning wood.
    Death.
    Blood soaked, charred bodies and body parts lay strewn this way and that across the grounds.  Caroline averted her gaze from the gruesome sight and her stinging eyes swept over the rest of the busy yard in search of Kelbie.
    Mildred’s soft voice came next to her, quickly, ‘He is there, my lady with the rest of the children in the other carts.’ 
    Caroline followed where the woman pointed and she saw her son, covered from head to toe in black soot, his large eyes, wet with his tears, huddled amongst the other children watching her. His thumb in his mouth. 
    Fresh tears began anew and she swallowed hard to quell the horror threatening to consume her. She straightened her back and moved to get off the cart. Mildred tried to restrain her, but she wrenched free and stepped down to the ground.
    She had not even taken her first step when the all too familiar male voice halted her in her tracks.
    ‘Not a wise move, demoiselle.’
    Caroline whirled to see the blue-eyed leader standing right behind her. Where had he come from? The choking smoke from the fire swirled around his head. She coughed and waved a waft of smoke from her face. 
    Again, she could not hold her tongue. Raw emotions ran through her at the senseless deaths around her. The weight of the whole day caused her to lash out at him without thought. Why it was so with this man, despite his intimidation and fierce scowl, she did not know. And that angered her too. She needed to yell at someone and since her husband was now dead. This arrogant Norman would do.
    She spat on the ground and the words tumbled out of her mouth, ‘Murdering Norman pig!’
    He surprised her with what he did next.
    A burst of rich laughter came from that mouth and he watched her for a long moment before those thin lips turned back into that crude line.
    ‘Think what you will. Come, your king waits.’ He waved his hand out in front of him in the opposite direction of the cart which held